The next day, Junita came personally, wanting to meet with her grandfather. She looked restless, jiggling from left to right, even as she was left into the Dawn, seated at the lounge.

"You smell awful," Keshnar said, placing a bowl before her filled with strong alcohol.

"It is probably the nerves. I can't help it." She answered, putting one tentacle into it, and slurping it up slowly.

"They won't notice it." Keshnar chuckled. "Couldn't sleep?"

"You knew about it?" She asked seriously.

"About your bad sleeping patterns?"

"I am talking about the data!" She pressed on, not really entertained by his jokes right now.

"I am one of the top figures of the Neo-Hegemony. What do you think?" Keshnar answered plainly.

"Fuck… And you did not tell me until now?! We are in fucking danger!"

"Relax a little!"

"Relax?!" She slapped the table with multiple tentacles, flipping the already empty bowl. "I verified everything! My people sent back troubling news! Some systems are completely emptied out! Not even the star remains! And stars do not vanish just like that!"

"No, they don't." Answered another voice. Looking towards it, she saw Omega walk in with Sylen in tow, still yawning and barely awake.

"How long have you been knowing about this?" She asked directly.

"For a while." He replied, bringing over coffee, pouring for himself, then for Sylen, who just moaned, slurping on it with messy hair, mumbling something under her nose. "We are at a state where we are ready to start doing something to avoid extinction."

"You have a plan?" Junita pressed on, already believing him.

"A very basic one." Omega nodded. "Gather as many people as I can and blow it to shreds."

"That… is truly a basic one," Junita mumbled, a bit surprised, not knowing if she should laugh or not.

"I told you~" He grinned. "Here is what we want; Trading routes with the Alliance. We need resources to build up our forces."

"Any other people would think you are selling a lie to let you build an army to go out and conquer." Junita jiggled in place. "But I can see the writings… I always collected secrets and had to read between the lines to find them. I know when I see something that is real. I can't convince the leaders of the Alliance to agree with me. But I can lie! I can push them in a way that will have the same result you want! I know many of their secrets!"

"So you can threaten them," Omega said to her, putting down his mug.

"Exactly! I can make sure we start trading with you. But I won't do it for free!"

"Of course!" Omega clapped, pushing a datapad towards her, letting her run through it.

"These are…" She asked, looking at different, brief details of different designs of machines, ships, and most tools for speeding up the production of many things they already have.

"What I can offer you are these. This could raise your production speed by at least 20 to 30 percent. This is for starters, of course! We need to see if we can truly work together! After the initial results, we can start dealing with even better stuff. For now, this is what we offer. Take it or leave it!"

"You don't even leave a place for bargaining at all?" Junita chuckled.

"No. This is not up for debate. Plus…” Omega licked his lips, looking at Junita, who was already too tired and too disturbed to even resist him. She was even blaming her addiction to secrets… There are really some things that should be left unknown.

"Plus?" She asked nervously, which was finally showing in her voice.

"Roxo will not have even this opportunity." Omega smiled slightly.

…
….
……

On the Wuulfharn ship, Roxo was sitting in his captain's chair. In front of him, on the main screen, his subordinate gave his report as his hunters had just arrived at the system where the invasion fleet was gathering their main strength. The same fleet, consisting of hundreds of ships, turned back from their route to the Gate of Kaltazar.

"Accompany them," Roxo said with a smirk. "Our ships are more advanced than theirs. Help them break through as quick as possible. I want those half-breeds to realize they are not ready to even be considered worthy players on a galactic scale!"

"Yes, Lord!"

"Don't go too far, though. Just decimate their fleet there, reclaim the lost mining facility and stop the rest of our brethren from going for the Gate."

"It will be done!" His captain saluted before cutting the feed.

Roxo was tapping on the armrest of his chair, watching the new image on the screen, the silhouette of the Dawn. He read through Omega's information multiple times, but in the end, it was too unbelievable.

"We rule over a great chunk of the Galaxy…." He thought to himself, "No way we would miss something like this! I call on your bluff, half-breed."

He didn't know it yet, but he wouldn't get what he wanted for the first time in a long time. He started to delay their next meeting, saying that he still needed to verify the information he was given. The trio had been sitting here for a week by now, simply waiting. Or at least Roxo's side. Junita was preoccupied with contacting her people and agents to get a start working on building bridges with the Neo-Hegemony. Being the first was also advantageous as by that, they would have the opportunity to reap the most benefits and profits if any other part of the Galaxy also opened up for them.

Sylen, Omega, and Keshnar were also relaxed as, while waiting, they were analyzing the research data that Dawn managed to download from the station. Hacking it and acquiring their research was easy, and Keshnar was one part amazed, one part appalled by what he saw. A weapon like what they wanted to produce was such a dangerous idea it should have been stopped as soon as it got to the drawing board.

"I agree." Omega nodded as they were having breakfast. "If they manage to develop it, it would be deadly."

"Heh… blowing up stars is something… especially evil!" Sylen snorted. "They would turn out to be more hated than our Neo-Hegemony!"

"That is for sure!" Keshnar added, sighing.

"No, not because of that!" Omega shook his head. "Blowing up a star that is still far away from its natural end would alert that Creator. That thing monitors the whole Galaxy. I don't know why but it is like a machine. It analyzes the laws of nature. That is why it spends most of its time in the center of the Galaxy. I don't know what it is looking for, but it is not content with what he can do now."

"He is searching for something?" Keshnar asked, remembering the basic equation that Omega showed him, the same as where he started at first. Keshnar was already at the first threshold of solving it, getting slowly closer to how AI works and how to create them.

"Yes."

"For what?" Sylen asked, munching on a piece of toasted bread. "Isn't it a God or something like that? You said it made the Astropaths!"

"That thing is not a God, just an advanced… thing. A race? A machine? An alien? I don't really know what it was originally. But if you ask me, the Creator is stuck at a step of the equation."

"Please don't bring it up…" Sylen moaned as she had a headache before, looking at it for too long.

"It created the Astropaths," Omega continued, "So It could travel the Galaxy more easily and more quickly. That thing is looking for something. For it, the creatures of the Galaxy are just animals living in its garden. But as soon as one of the 'animals' starts destroying its garden, it would step in and exterminate them! That is why it would be alerted if the Alliance finishes this weapon. The next step would be what happened to the Hegemony. Utter annihilation."

"Tsk…" Keshnar clicked his tongue. He wanted to say something, but then Dawn interjected.

"Junita is trying to contact our prisoner."

"Ignore her calls. Let her start worrying." Keshnar answered. "She will figure out we captured her subordinate. If she is the one coming for her, we can squeeze out some more of her!"

"Damn, I am glad you are not my grandfather!" Sylen gulped down her breakfast, looking at Keshnar.